r/incremental_games • u/Notoregy • 23h ago

Help request Core/loop formula

Hey, my problem is, I can't figure out a core formula for my production in my game. My game is pretty much an antimatter dimension/revolution idle like incremental game.

How am I "inventing" a new core formula that's still simple. I really like the formula of the generation chain (like antimatter) and the genius simplicity of revolution idles formula with the multiplicators that is growing. I want something my own, unique formula, but it's so hard. I want to keep the idea of having several "generators", instead of just one thing you can upgrade. However, each generator follows roughly the same logic.

My question is, how did you invent your own formula?

Thanks for every answer

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

2

u/Abject-Light-9227 22h ago

Have you seen the classic “the math of idle games” blog series? I found it very helpful for my understanding in how the pieces fit together and affect game progression feel. I’m not a math person though and in the end I started with one of their formulas, put it in excel, and tweaked the numbers, taking care that it was “reversible” (able to find “how many X can I afford” without brute force). The first article at least is https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/the-math-of-idle-games-part-i but you might have to hunt around for the others.

You might also find r/incremental_gamedev helpful (this type of content is a great fit).

2

u/Ezazhel 20h ago

Sometime it's ok to not reinvent the wheel but iterate around it. Ask yourself : waht can a bring using this loop ?

2

u/cdsa142 Lab Rats 15h ago

Its useful when thinking about game design to think about why games choose certain mechanics, or how they would change if a mechanic was added or removed.

Generator chains are useful because they emphasize time more than separate producer games. With 8 generators chained, the impact of time spent waiting is time ^ 8. I believe this smooths out progress and makes balancing easier, because if your cost for the next upgrade is off from the ideal cost by 2x, the time spent waiting will be off by less than 2x.

Iterating on an existing idea might be a good place to start and get a feel for the equations. For example, what happens if you let the player assign/unassign multipliers to specific generators?